SAN MATEO, Calif. — Following Gonzaga Men's Cross Country's best-ever finish in their third-straight trip to the NCAA National Championships race, GU Head Coach Pat Tyson has been named the West Coast Conference Coach of the Year for the second time in his career, the league announced Thursday.
Similar to last year, the conference recognized the WCC Men's and Women's Cross Country Runner of the Year and WCC Men's and Women's Cross Country Coach of the Year in a vote of each of the Conference's head coaches at the conclusion of the NCAA cross country seasons for all programs.
Tyson first won Coach of the Year honors following the spring 2020 season in which the GU men qualified for their first-ever team berth to nationals. Since then, the Bulldogs have only ascended on the national stage — in the three consecutive years the Bulldogs have qualified, they've improved their finish each time, culminating in a program-best 13th-place finish in 2022.
The Zags' big finish on Nov. 19 in Stillwater, Okla. came after earning their first-ever automatic bid with a second-place finish at West Regionals a week prior. GU entered the race ranked No. 15 in the nation in the most recent USTFCCA polls, with the Bulldogs knocking off three teams ranked higher than them — No. 13 Notre Dame, No. 11 Villanova and No. 14 Tennessee. All seven of the Zags' top runners at nationals hailed from Washington state high schools, led by Yacine Guermali (41st, 29:36.3) and Wil Smith (59th, 29:50.4) in the Top 100 and followed by James Mwaura (101st, 30:12.4), Cullen McEachern (128th, 30:26.7), Kyle Radosevich (133rd, 30:27.8), Riley Moore (203rd, 31:05.5) and Bryce Cerkowniak (220th, 31:26.3).
"We ran a conservative race, unlike a year ago and last March, where we ran an aggressive race and paid the price," Tyson said after the race. "So if you look at the results and you look at every individual in their progression over every K, we were in the green. I'm really proud of these guys for enduring, particularly these three seniors that are going to graduate. They fought, and collectively, these Washington high school grads came together and pulled off the greatest cross country race team wise in Gonzaga history."
GU finished second at WCC Championships in Portland, Ore. on Oct. 28 behind 2022 WCC Runner of the Year Casey Clinger and a BYU team that finished third overall in Stillwater. Wil Smith's third-place finish to pace the Zags made him the only non-BYU runner on the All-WCC list, and he followed it up with All-West Region honors in Tacoma two weeks later.
Full 2022 WCC Cross Country Awards are below.
WCC Women's Coach of the Year - Diljeet Taylor, BYU
WCC Co-Women's Runners of the Year - Aubrey Frentheway, BYU and Laura Pellicoro, Portland
WCC Men's Coach of the Year - Pat Tyson, Gonzaga
WCC Men's Runner of the Year - Casey Clinger, BYU
